


it is destiny

by SilverInk



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: (there is no actual death in this but there is discussion of it & fear of it), Angst, Based on a Tumblr Post, Bittersweet, Domestic, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Loss of Immortality, M/M, Non-Explicit Sex, Returning to Malta (The Old Guard)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 11:42:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29259918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverInk/pseuds/SilverInk
Summary: How Joe and Nicky lose their immortality.(Please see tags for content warnings!)
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 8
Kudos: 102





	it is destiny

**Author's Note:**

> This is set at some ambiguous time in The Future, where Nile and the rest of the team have had several more missions together. Also Andy is immortal still, and Booker isn't exiled. (That's not super important to the story, but I wanted to set up the team dynamic XD )
> 
> Based on this Tumblr post: https://creepyleech.tumblr.com/post/636041476901617664/it-doesnt-even-happen-during-a-mission-its

They were supposed to be taking it easy, resting and laying low after the latest mission, and Joe and Nicky had decided to recuperate in Malta. They were staying in their favorite hideout they’d discovered there over the centuries, and though it was only their first night there, Nicky had decided to spend the afternoon on home repairs while Joe went out to buy food.

When he came back, Nicky gave him a sweet, tired smile, and kissed him. Joe quickly set down his shopping bags to wrap his arms around Nicky’s broad shoulders and kiss him back, glad to be back with his lover again even though they had only been apart a few hours. It would be good to spend the evening together, he thought. He’d missed the closeness they weren’t able to share on missions, missed Nicky’s skin against his at night, missed being able to kiss him any time he wanted.

Nicky had fixed the biggest problems with the house, and they decided they could do the more minor things like fixing the broken shelves tomorrow, together. As a reward for all his hard work, Joe was going to make him dinner.

“What are you making, _amore mio_?” Nicky asked as Joe emptied the grocery bags onto the counter.

“Fish,” Joe smiled, holding up the fresh-caught swordfish in its plastic bag. Malta had the best fish they had eaten in many centuries, and the best spices as well. “And flatbread.” He held that up too. “And a surprise for dessert.” That, he kept hidden in the depths of the grocery bag.

“Oh, you’re spoiling me, Yusuf,” Nicky murmured, giving the wide, genuine smile he only ever gave Joe, and leaned in to kiss him. It was long and gentle, and Joe felt his heart pounding in his chest even after centuries of kisses like that.

“You’re mine to spoil, Niccolò,” Joe grinned back, kissing him lightly again, and Nicky gave him a soft look.

As Joe cooked, Nicky sat at the table and kept him entertained by singing and playing the guitar. Joe loved the sound of his voice, low and warm and rough, and he was already getting distracted by Nicky’s first song, one from the 16th century they’d loved to dance to, as he started the fish and peppered it with rich spices. As he started chopping vegetables to go with it, Nicky started singing a more recent pop song from one of his favorite Italian artists, and Joe grinned and couldn’t help singing along.

He must’ve gotten more careless than he thought, because as they got to the chorus of Anna Oxa’s “Un’Emozione Da Poco,” the knife in his hand slipped, cutting his finger instead of the onion. It only hurt a little, and Joe laughed at how distracted he was, knowing it would heal in seconds.

“ _Habibi_ , be careful,” Nicky laughed too, setting the guitar down and coming to him with a tissue in hand to wipe the blood away.

“You’ll have to stop distracting me, then.”

Nicky laughed again, free and happy, and kissed the now clean tip of his finger. “There, all better.”

“Thank you, _amore mio_ —” Joe started, moving to reach for the knife again, when Nicky gasped and grabbed his hand again. He was frozen for a second, then spoke.

“Yusuf.” His voice was low and urgent, and he was still looking down at Joe’s hand, his brows drawn together, suddenly alarmingly sober.

Joe looked down at his hand too, worried and confused by Nicky’s reaction, and felt his blood turn to ice.

The cut on his finger was still bleeding. It hadn’t healed.

His legs felt weak and shaky suddenly, and he reached out to brace his free hand against the counter. “Niccolò...” When their eyes met, Nicky’s were wide with horror. Nicky’s hands were shaking as he pressed the tissue to the cut again, so gently, as if hoping this time it would heal. They both watched as the blood continued to pour from it.

“ _Yusuf_ ,” Nicky repeated, almost pleadingly, and his eyes were wet now. Joe touched his cheek with his free hand, tears welling in his own eyes and feeling his heart gripped by the same terror he knew Nicky’s was. He shook his head insistently, again and again, and moved to grip Nicky’s neck. He couldn’t die without Nicky and leave him to face the rest of his immortality alone, he couldn’t…

Nicky’s hands were still shaking as he picked up the knife Joe had been using, and he met Joe’s eyes with a mix of fear and determination. Joe nodded and he closed his eyes, then sliced the knife across the pad of his own finger. It was a deeper cut than Joe’s, and Joe took the ruined tissue and pressed it gently to Nicky’s wound now. His hands were shaking too, but he ignored it as they both waited, coiled with tension.

It didn’t heal. The blood continued to come quickly, and as Joe wiped it away, it immediately started to flow over again.

Joe’s breath caught, and when he carefully tried to let it out it turned into a sob, and then he couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. At nearly the same time, Nicky made a choked, desperate sound, and the stillness of the moment shattered. They clung to each other tightly and sank to the floor together, neither of them strong enough to stand with the weight of their relief on their shoulders.

“Thank god, oh thank you thank you,” Nicky breathed, his face buried against Joe’s neck. He was speaking the old Italian that was his first language, crying and clinging to Joe’s shirt and his arms and his neck however he could.

“God Nicky, I could’ve died without you,” Joe choked out, in the same language, barely able to see him through the tears in his eyes. “Thank god, thank god, oh Nicky...”

They fell silent, and Joe buried his face in Nicky’s hair, breathing in the citrusy scent of the shampoo he used. His arms wrapped around Nicky’s waist, and Nicky’s arms settled around his neck. He couldn’t do anything else except hold Nicky desperately close, and Nicky seemed to feel the same.

“I told you,” Nicky murmured after long minutes of just sitting in silence together, holding each other and letting their tears slow, “it is destiny. We were fated to meet and be together, and we are fated to die together, too.”

How wise his Niccolò was. Always so confident that they were made for each other by God, or the universe, or some higher power. Joe had never been as convinced of the deliberate hand of fate in their lives, though now he saw less and less reason to doubt Nicky’s surety, with this last evidence of their connection staring him in the face.

“How is it possible that we’ve been so lucky, _hayati_? That this fate was designed for us?”

At that, Nicky only kissed him, smiling a little. “I cannot answer that, only be grateful for it.” He ran his fingers through Joe’s hair, then winced when the curls dragged painfully across the cut in his finger.

“I will have to get used to that,” he laughed, and Joe laughed too, wetly.

They stood up, carefully and slowly, and Joe abruptly remembered the food he’d been cooking. The fish and few vegetables in the pan were burned by now, and Joe spared a thought to mourn the delicious dinner they would have eaten. He only moved away from Nicky long enough to turn the burner off, and then he was back in his arms, with Nicky’s big hands in his own. They would deal with the kitchen later. Now, however...

Now they were together and they were safe.

“Come,” Joe said roughly, pulling Nicky by the hand toward the bedroom. Nicky followed eagerly with his eyes fixed on Joe’s. It made Joe shiver in pleasure to be the focus of those intense, stormy eyes, and he felt tears begin to prick his own eyes again as he closed the bedroom door and let Nicky push him back against it to kiss him.

They made love on the warm, rumpled sheets for hours, until the sunlight streaming in through the window dimmed to almost nothing. It was always good with Nicky, more pleasure than Joe could have ever imagined when they first met, but now it seemed almost even more vulnerable and raw, somehow. They were careful with each other, preparing each other’s bodies with infinite gentleness—not that they weren’t careful before, but now that they risked real injury if they weren’t, they were both cautiously delicate with each other, like it was their first time.

After, Joe lay with his head pillowed on Nicky’s chest, his eyes closed, basking in the aftermath of pleasure and the presence of his lover. Nicky’s hand was in his hair, and soon he pushed himself up onto his elbow so he could see Nicky’s face. As he did so he noticed a mark on his neck, just under his jaw, the same place where Joe had sucked and bitten and made him moan louder. Awed, he touched the mark lightly, and felt Nicky shiver against him when he realized what it was.

Eventually, Joe made his way back to the kitchen, still naked. They were both parched and hungry, and as Joe filled two tall glasses with ice water, he remembered what he’d bought for their dessert earlier in the day. It was a small paper box of baklava with two pieces for each of them, and Joe smiled as he tucked the box under his arm so he could carry everything at once.

Nicky was sitting up against the headboard with the sheets pooled around his hips, his hair tousled and attractively messy, and looking solemnly at his hands in his lap. He looked up as Joe stepped into the room, and they exchanged a soft smile. Wordlessly, he handed one glass to Nicky then got into bed beside him, setting the box between them.

“ _Grazie, tesoro mio_ ,” Nicky smiled, kissing his cheek.

“ _Prego_.” Joe grinned and turned his head to kiss his lips.

They fed the baklava to each other as they lay there, just looking at each other in besotted relief and enjoying the preciousness of this moment together. When they had finished, they tasted the baklava on each other’s lips, and somehow it tasted even better that way.

The rest of the night was spent much the same, alternating between sex and just looking at each other in their bed, and occasionally getting up for more food or drinks. There was never more than a few inches of space between them, and as the night wore on, Joe was finding it harder and harder to distinguish the boundaries between his own body and Nicky’s. They became one person, and the thought brought new tears to Joe’s eyes as he lay with his head on Nicky’s chest again.

Nicky ran his fingers through Joe’s hair and pressed kisses to his forehead, with his other hand against Joe’s throat. It was intimate and peaceful and perfect, but Joe was suddenly desperate to see the other man’s face. He rolled over and settled his own body fully over Nicky’s, from hips to stomach to chest, and cupped his face in his hands. Nicky had tears in his beautiful eyes too, and Joe smiled at him and ran his fingers over his strong jaw, his cheeks, forehead, and Roman nose. That made Nicky smile too, and their resulting kiss was clumsy and sweet. They drifted into sex again, and then they dozed off together for a while, still entwined like they were one person.

When they woke a few hours later, Nicky made him breakfast. Then, they went to the market again and bought Band-Aids and a first aid kit, holding hands the whole time. On the way back home, they got hot coffee which they drank out on the balcony, and Joe still didn’t want to let go of Nicky’s hand. Neither of them wanted to go very long without touching, still relieved and needing to feel the reassurance of the other beside them.

Nicky put the Band-Aid on Joe’s finger for him, even though the cut was already healing and barely hurt at all; Joe enjoyed the novelty of it, and enjoyed having his lover take care of him. Then Joe put a Band-Aid on Nicky’s cut which was still a little bloody and painful, and he kissed it when he was finished.

“Will we grow old now, do you think?” Nicky asked, looking down contemplatively at his bandaged finger. “Will we age like mortals now, or will we still continue to be young until we are killed somehow?”

“I don’t know.” Joe knew that Lykon, the only other immortal to have died so far, had been killed immediately. None of them knew what would happen if they continued living as mortals. “But, I know I’ll still want to be with you even if we do become old men.”

“You incurable romantic,” Nicky laughed, and kissed him.

They would need to call the others later and tell them what had happened, and they’d need to talk about what it meant for the team. For now, though, Joe was perfectly content to remind himself what he had in Nicky, to enjoy the feeling of being loved and being in love.

How lucky they were to have this destiny, he thought as he pulled Nicky closer and kissed him back.

**Author's Note:**

> I made myself so sad ugh :( 
> 
> Also, here's a clip of Luca Marinelli (his character in a movie) singing Un'Emozione Da Poco, it's truly marvelous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6myJ3gRf0WA
> 
> I'm on Tumblr @ciceros-ghost, and on Dreamwidth @silverink ! <3


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